Kawakami: 49ers add pieces with Seahawks in mind

SANTA CLARA -- So Ohio State tailback Carlos Hyde is the 49ers' power-ball answer for Marshawn Lynch, and Stevie Johnson is a possible Richard Sherman antidote.

Got it?

And maybe all current and future Trent Baalke/Jim Harbaugh moves are aimed directly at dethroning the Seahawks in very specific ways.

See how easy this all works -- and has to work -- when you're the second best team in the NFL and you play the No. 1 team at least twice a year?

Sure, that's a humongous oversimplification of the 49ers' maniacal maneuvering (five trades on Friday alone) over the last two days and sometimes Baalke's deals seem to have a blurry logic all their own.

Running back Carlos Hyde (34) of the Ohio State Buckeyes celebrates his second quarter touchdown against the Penn State Nittany Lions at Beaver Stadium on October 27, 2012, in State College, Pennsylvania. (Patrick Smith/Getty Images)

But still, the main theme holds: The 49ers weren't as good as the Seahawks last season -- including that NFC title game loss in Seattle -- and their quest this off-season is to reverse that.

So that's partially what led to Friday's trade for Johnson, the former Bills receiver who can line up alongside Anquan Boldin and Michael Crabtree in a set that will make the Seattle secondary worry a little bit more.

And, going back to the first round, that explains the drafting of Northern Illinois safety Jimmie Ward, who might be able to tackle Lynch, intercept Russell Wilson and cover Jermaine Kearse on fourth down in the NFC Championship Game.

After all his trades and picks on Friday, Baalke brushed off my Seattle Supposition generally, but I think he also confirmed parts of the concept.

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"You've got to matchup with everybody, you can't just worry about what Seattle's doing," Baalke said.

"Do we look at matchups? Absolutely we do. But we also look at fits and system. We know what we want to do offensively; we know what we want to do defensively.

"You've got to find players that can do those things, because that's how we win football games. These are all guys that fit into our mentality."

The 49ers have built themselves to be physical and rough and now Seattle has built itself to be a little more physical and a little rougher.

So the 49ers need players that simply can help them beat the Seahawks -- and if they can beat the Seahawks, they can beat everybody

We could go on and on with this line of thinking, and I think that's what the 49ers general manager is doing.

The 49ers are a big team that kept on getting bigger with every move on Friday -- they took two offensive linemen, a big tailback, and an inside linebacker.

"Big wins a lot of football games," Baalke said with a smile.

Oh, by the way, the Rams are building a ferocious defense, too, and the 49ers must deal with them twice a season, also.

To win the West, you have to be tough and fast and have answers for all the young stars in the division.

The 49ers offered up some proposed answers the last few days: Johnson, Ward and Hyde, as a starting point.

To their great frustration, the 49ers haven't been wonderful on third-and-short in recent years, while Seattle has been very good--including Lynch's third-quarter touchdown run vs. the 49ers in January.

Hyde, at the very least, should be a difference-maker in those move-the-pile, bust-up-the-defense moments.

"He runs our style of offense very well," Baalke said of Hyde. "He runs with his pads low and he can make the offensive line better, and that's what you're looking for in running backs.

"It's going to create great competition."

Hyde's arrival is not great news for incumbent tailback Frank Gore, just like Ward's selection wasn't so good for newly signed veteran safety Antoine Bethea.

But you don't get past Seattle by standing still. And the whole point of this is to beat Seattle.

"I know it's a very important game, especially from what I've seen in the playoffs," Ward said at his introductory presser.

"I know Seahawks-49ers, that's the game of the century right there."

It's everything for the 49ers, just like it was everything for the Seahawks last year, and the Seahawks won the Super Bowl because of it.

It's all about one game in Seattle, one game in Santa Clara, and probably one game in the playoffs, and the 49ers are loading up for them, wisely and unabashedly.